


Surprise in the ballroom

by BlueFlyingTurtle



Category: Elena of Avalor (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:53:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26372251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueFlyingTurtle/pseuds/BlueFlyingTurtle
Summary: After a very unpleasant week Chloe gets an unexpected surprise.
Relationships: Queen Abigail & princess Chloe
Kudos: 4





	Surprise in the ballroom

The empty halls of the palace echoed when princess Chloe dragged herself towards the ballroom. She entered a small bathroom near the ballroom itself that was usually used by guests to freshen up during balls. She used it to change her clothes before her weekly dance lessons. She closed the door and sighed for the hundredth time that day.

Usually, Friday was her favourite day of the week, exactly because of that reason. Dancing was her great passion after all. But today, she couldn't find the strength to enjoy anything.

With another resigned sigh, she looked at the light dress that was prepared for her and frowned a little. This whole week did not go as she had planned. Slowly she started changing her clothes, remembering all the moments that had put her in this mood.

In truth her first problem had dragged on for quite some time now, she realized while unbuttoning her dress. Half a year ago she was entrusted with keeping official correspondence with the princess of Zdraben and until now she was fulfilling that duty scrupulously. Especially since princess Ingarda was her first friend she made without princess Elena's help.

So far everything was well and the letters had always come around the same time each month. Until now. Chloe frowned just thinking about it. Although it might've been also because she found a hole in her stocking. This month the letter was more than a week late, and with every day that passed, Chloe was panicking more and more. What happened to it? Did Ingarda even send it? What if she hadn't? Maybe it was her way of telling her that she doesn't want any more letters? Or Chloe wrote something so inappropriate that Ingarda decided to end their correspondence? Or she wrote something SO BAD that instead of the letter, the messenger will bring a declaration of war!?

Chloe then realized that she had been grabbing her dress's cloth and now she was holding almost the whole skirt in her hand. The Princess took a deep breath and tried to calm down. While putting on the light training dress, she was searching her brain for something else to think about, which caused her to remember her other worry.

As she was putting her arms in the long, loose sleeves, she could still hear professor's Wandershtei's yelling in her head. As a princess and an heir to the throne, her duty was to get the best education, so she could serve her people well, and the professor was the finest expert of the liberal arts in all of Norberg. Unfortunately he was also a fan of the old timey approach to teaching, which said that the best way to motivate students is to yell and belittle them. Which sadly meant that Chloe had to experience this yesterday.

Chloe shivered as she stepped on the cold, stone floor. She took off her daily shoes and changed them for the dancing slippers. _“If you're too lazy to learn for a quick history test, how do you expect to remember all your royal duties! I hope I won't live to see you ruling! Norberg will fall under such a lazy queen!”_ was still ringing in her head. On the one hand she knew that it was just a single test and the professor is known for exaggerating, but on the other hand, she couldn't stop blaming herself. Liberal arts were always her favourite subjects, and she was usually quite good at them too, so this mistake was even more bitter. In a sudden fit of frustration she tightened her shoelaces so much that she hissed from pain and quickly loosened them. Since this year she actually did take on a few of her royal duties, and she was always trying to fulfill them the best she could. She just wanted to be a good queen in the future.

Though to be honest… she also wanted to reduce her mother's workload a little. Chloe smoothed her dress and took a hair-ribbon. She knew well that ruling was extremely hard, and ruling almost by oneself was at least two-times harder. So she never held it against her mother that she often had to take care of the Kingdom's politics instead of her. And the older Chloe got, the more it happened. She was now tying knots in the ribbon to let off steam. For around a year now she was spending only evenings with her mother, unless Chloe helped her in some official business.

And despite everything, she was happy for those evenings. They always met for dinner and talked about their days. Queen Abigail would share her experiences or just complain about dignitaries and tell anecdotes from meetings with them. Then Chloe would tell her about what she has learned today or share her thoughts on her duties. Later if they weren't too tired they would go to a drawing room and spend some more time together. Sometimes they would read books together, sitting near the fireplace, or play cards, or just snuggle on the couch, finally having a while to themselves. At least, that's how it usually was. 

Chloe felt tears gathering in her eyes. For almost four days she hadn't been able to spend time with her mom, not even for any casual talk. Admittedly, they were both on the opening of the new school this Tuesday, and they were both so busy preparing for it, they couldn't exchange even a few words in private. Chloe tightened the bow on her head and lowered her arms, taking a deep breath to calm herself. And yet, when she looked in the mirror, she felt her eyes filling with tears. She bit her lip to keep herself from crying.

She turned towards the door, but still hesitated a little before opening it. So much had happened during this one week, that she was starting to feel lost. She didn't want to let anybody down, but sometimes she just didn't know what to do. She would give anything to hug her mom right now and just talk.

Chloe let out a shaky breath. Then she took a few deep ones and reminded herself again to keep up appearances and keep going. She was the princess after all, she was supposed to help others, not be a burden to them. She wiped her tears, opened the door and quickly went out on the corridor and into the ballroom.

* * *

Chloe closed the door behind her, turned to the room and froze. Before a row of mirrors, put there specially for the lesson, stood no one else than queen Abigail herself.

"M-mom?" she sputtered, not believing her own eyes.

"Chloe!" the queen shouted and closed her daughter in a strong bear hug. At first, princess was too shocked to hug back.

"Did something happen?" Chloe didn't want to sound ungrateful, but she just didn't understand what was happening. And with the mood she was in, she already had a few and scenarios coming to her head.

"Oh, no, no! It's just I…" Abigail finally let her daughter go, although she was still holding her forearms. Queen turned her head away and for a moment looked troubled. Finally she looked Chloe's in the eyes again and cupped her cheek "...I want to say, I'm sorry, pumpkin."

Chloe wasn't expecting that. She blinked a few times but still and no idea what it might be her mother was about and what to say. Thankfully, she continued.

"A lot was happening lately and I was terribly busy, you know. I don't want to excuse myself this way, but… I know I wasn't paying you enough attention. You also have a lot going on and I think that maybe it would be easier if we did this together?" The sadness that was visible on her face cleared a bit for a hopeful smile "I'm sorry."

Chloe suddenly hugged her, burying her face in her mom's dress. She felt as her tears started running down her face, but she didn't care.

"Apology accepted." she whispered between sobs.

"Shh… don't worry" Abigail hugged her back and slowly stroked her hair. That wasn't exactly the reaction she was expecting and she felt her eyes watering too.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing… Now everything's ok." Chloe whispered, smiling for the first time in a few days.

Chloe was actually happy, Abigail realised. But she felt like she still had to get one thing right. 

"I'm sorry for your dance lesson… I know how important it is to you, I just wanted to talk to you as fast as I could and-"

"It's alright." Chloe's sobs finally changed into laughter. She lightened her hug a little to wipe off her tears and looked at her mom "And we still can dance." 

  



End file.
